How to use ENVELOPE TRAY for OfficeJet 7410xi?

I have an HP OfficeJet 7410xi - several years old. It has a separate small tray which hangs off the back of the printer for use with envelopes and postcards. Not sure of the terminology - I think this envelope tray literally feeds into the "duplexer". This envelope tray has never been used because we had another printer which was dedicated for envelopes. Other printer has now died and we need to use 7410xi to print envelopes.

I can't find ANY information on this envelope tray. It came with the original purchase of the 7410xi. Same box. I have all original manuals, yet no mention of this rear tray. Can't get it to work. Printer doesn't seem to even know it's there. 7400 series manual that came with printer doesn't even reference possibility of a rear tray.

Searching HP.com gives no results. Searching forum gave us no results. Called HP. HP Customer Service Rep couldn't figure out what I was talking about because his manuals didn't reference tray. It's an HP product but HP doesn't know what it is or how to use it - nice. It's old enough, I didn't expect the Rep to tell me how to use it, but I do expect them to keep all manuals. Obviously this one isn't around anymore.

Can anyone shed some light on where I can find instructions on how to get this silly thing to operate? Any help would be VERY much appreciated.

Re: How to use ENVELOPE TRAY for OfficeJet 7410xi?

Thanks so much for your reply! Yes, that is the manual I have, both original paper in front of me and online. Unfortunately, it doesn't contain any information about this rear tray. If you search on "envelope", you find on page 36 it shows you how to load envelopes into the standard front tray (which means having to remove the paper each time to print an envelope - not user friendly).

A further search on "envelope" reveals what I think I own, listed on page 150 as an add on accessory. (This printer was purchased with the accessory as a "bonus" part of the package - all in one box, one deal. There was no separate purchase made. Just the way this printer was marketed.)

It is my understanding this "two-sided print accessory" is called the duplexer. And obviously by the pictures found in the User Guide, this duplexer comes in two different models, one with and one without the small paper tray feeder attached at the top of it. This third rear tray literally sticks right out of the top of the duplexer.

I have searched on HP for Hagaki - no joy. Searched for small paper tray - of which I can come up with many for all printers but the 7410xi, so still no luck.

It's amazing to me that HP could sell and/or package an accessory that they have no manual for, no instructions for how to access, operate, or troubleshoot. With my old HP Laserjet 6L, all you had to do was stick an envelope in the envelope slot and that's where it would print to. I can stick 20 envelopes in the 7410 Hagaki "small paper tray" and any printing still goes to one of the two normal trays located on the front of the printer.

I'm afraid this isn't an easy question. BH, any more ideas? I've been banging on this one issue all day and I'm getting ready to shoot the thing. :-))))

Re: How to use ENVELOPE TRAY for OfficeJet 7410xi?

I stumbled upon your post literally on the same day you replied to it and it helped me in my own frustrating search for a solution to the rear tray.

Note that for step one, you only have to do ONE of the options. I did option two. (I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED IT WITH THIS KIND OF TEXT)

The tray has to be 'enabled' deep in the printer's configuration settings. It is referred to as a "two sided" tray or something because it's built off the base duplex module. Instructions follow:

Enabling the accessory in Windows

Follow these instructions to enable the accessory.

1. Open the Toolbox by doing one of the following:

1a. From a program, click File , then Print . Click the Properties button, then click the Services tab. Click the Service this device button. (I DID THIS SIMPLY BY ACCESSING PRINT PROPERTIES THROUGH THE "PRINTER PREFERENCES" BUTTON VIEWABLE WHEN YOU RIGHT CLICK THE PRINTER IN THE CONTROL PANEL "PRINTERS" SECTION AND SELECT "PROPERTIES")

1b. Open the HP Director on the computer's first screen and click Settings , Print Settings , and then Printer Toolbox .

2. Select the Configuration tab in the Toolbox. If there is not a Configuration tab, uninstall, then reinstall the software for the HP all-in-one using the CD-ROM that came with the product.

3. Check Auto Two-Sided Print Accessory with small paper tray , depending on which accessory is attached. (THIS EXACT LANGUAGE WILL SHOW YOU WHEN YOU'RE AT THE RIGHT SPOT AND IS ACTUALLY REFERENCING THE PHOTO/ENVELOPE MODULE.

4. Click Apply , then click OK in the confirmation box that opens.

5. Click the X in the upper right corner to close the Toolbox.

Some notes for the geniuses at HP. The "toolbox" was not called "the toolbox" on my computer. Also, the extra 1a, 1b steps were completely unnecessary and confusing. Finally, kudos on burying an 'enable' function so deep in menus that it took me, a very savvy 32 year old, the better part of an hour to find this solution. I promise I will stick to samsung from now on.

Re: How to use ENVELOPE TRAY for OfficeJet 7410xi?

Ah Ryan, thank you so much for your reply. It looks like I found the same instructions you did. If only this had cured my problem!!! ......and I believe it would have if I were not running a Win 7 64-bit machine!!!

You are correct. It looks like you must "Enable the Accessory". But it appears to me that HP in its infinite wisdom, has "upgraded" the software, and conveniently left out the ability to access anything to do with "enabling an accessory" for Win 7. If anyone can correct me I would be very happy to be proven wrong. But as of now it looks like HP has made the rear tray on my printer inaccessible, which at this point is going to cause me to toss the thing and buy a new printer - guaranteed to not be an HP.

I'm running the HP Solution Center - which is what HP loads on a Win 7 machine connected to a 7410xi instead of the old HP Director. There is a Printer Toolbox option - but it no longer contains a tab for "Services". Same thing if I access it the other way via FILE, PRINT, PROPERTIES. So sadly, your 1a route doesn't work. I have checked all the other links/tabs/settings within the Solution Center - no "configuration tabs" to be found. ;-/

1b is irrelevant, because there no longer is an HP Director. As well as 1c.

Since there was no configuration tab, and since I saw the same instructions you did, I decided to try the instructions where it said to uninstall my HP software, and then reinstall from the original CD in order to get a "Printer Toolbox/Services option". I figured if I started with the original software, enabled the accessory, then upgraded to the new Solution Center, I would have a chance of retaining the configuration.

Uninstalling HP's multiple programs took over an hour with all the reboots required on this silly machine. Much to my frustration, I then found that it was impossible to install from the original CD. Original CD barfs on a Win 7 machine with stupid incompatibility errors declaring that I do not have administrator privileges. Wrong - I am the only user on this machine with FULL administrative privileges. Stupid thing also refuses a "Run as administrator" command so I was SOL and had to reinstall all the new software same as I had - still with no way to enable an accessory.

My theory that all this is HP not playing nice with Win 7 was confirmed when I powered up an old XP machine on my LAN which runs the old HP Director. I was able to easily access the Services Tab, enable the accessory, and successfully printed to an envelope via the rear tray. Doing so does not enable the accessory on any other machine however. And unfortunately, the XP machine is about to be reformatted with Win 7 which will make it impossible to ever again access the rear tray - so it's not like I can just go use the older machine when I want to print envelopes.

Honestly, I do not expect HP to support an older printer forever. But I darn well expect them to not force us to load software which eliminates the use of vital components of our devices. This is inexcusable! This 7410 is a perfectly working printer, and I have a whole cabinet full of printer cartridges. But now that I need the envelope feeder to work, and HP won't allow me access to enable it, the printer is basically useless to me. The rear tray worked flawlessly from this same computer just a year ago - right before I upgraded to Win 7 and their so-called "Solution Center". It's prettier, I will grant you that. But the old HP Director was at least functional.

If HP's strategy is to force us all to buy new printers as they turn ours non-functional, I'm afraid it's going to backfire on them. I will be looking for a new printer in the form of "anything but HP". As a consultant my recommendations are valued by many people throughout the year, so HP is going to lose many more sales than just mine.

So.....if anyone can figure out a way to "enable an accessory" via the new HP Solution Center which has no access to a "services tab", I would be most grateful, since I actually really like this printer when it all works.